Fashion Buyer Resume Examples for 2024

Jump to a template:

Fashion Buyer

Get advice on each section of your resume:

Summary

Experience

Education

Skills

Jump to a resource:

Fashion Buyer Resume Tips

Keywords

Google Docs Template #1

Fashion Buyer Resume Sample

A fashion buyer forecasts potential trends in the industry and purchases products that consumers might be interested in. They assess consumers’ purchasing patterns, demands, and current prices in the market. Then they will find suppliers that offer the best prices and products and establish an alliance with them.

Buy Template (Word + Google Docs) Download Resume in PDF

Screenshot

Text Version

A fashion buyer resume example that highlights industry-relevant work experience.

Tips to help you write your Fashion Buyer resume in 2024

Highlight your knowledge of apparel and textiles.

Your potential employer wants a buyer agent that is completely familiarized with the apparel industry. You must understand how the fashion industry works in order to identify trends in consumers. Knowing about textiles and color theory and being up-to-date with the current industry trends is definitely a plus.

Also see: Find Hard Skills To Include In Your Resume

Highlight your knowledge of apparel and textiles. - Fashion Buyer Resume

Expand

Mention your merchandising techniques.

Merchandising is a technique in which you promote items to resell in wholesales or retail companies. The way you present those products is going to affect sales, so being familiar with merchandising techniques is important in this occupation. Some of those methods can be having well-restocked shelves, including promotional items, and enhancing a product’s features with lighting or color.

Also see: Find Hard Skills To Include In Your Resume

Mention your merchandising techniques. - Fashion Buyer Resume

Expand

Fashion Buyer Resume Tips

We consulted with hiring managers at top fashion companies like Nordstrom, Macy's, and Bloomingdale's to gather their insights on what makes a strong fashion buyer resume. Based on their feedback and our analysis of successful resumes, we've compiled a list of key tips to help you craft a compelling resume that will catch the attention of fashion industry recruiters and hiring managers.

Showcase your fashion industry knowledge

Hiring managers want to see that you have a deep understanding of the fashion industry and current trends. Highlight your expertise by:

Mentioning specific designers, brands, or fashion houses you've worked with or followed closely
Discussing your ability to identify and predict fashion trends based on market research and analysis
Showcasing your attendance at major fashion events, such as New York Fashion Week or Paris Fashion Week

Avoid simply stating that you have 'knowledge of the fashion industry' without providing concrete examples to back it up.

Expand

Emphasize your sales and negotiation skills

As a fashion buyer, your ability to negotiate with vendors and drive sales is crucial. Showcase your skills by highlighting specific examples, such as:

Negotiated with suppliers to reduce costs by 15% while maintaining product quality
Collaborated with the sales team to develop strategies that increased sales by 20% year-over-year
Built strong relationships with key vendors, resulting in exclusive product lines and improved margins

Avoid simply listing 'strong negotiation skills' without providing measurable results.

Demonstrate your analytical and data-driven approach

Fashion buyers need to make data-driven decisions to ensure profitability and minimize risk. Show hiring managers that you have a strong analytical mindset by including examples like:

Analyzed sales data and consumer trends to optimize product assortment, resulting in a 25% increase in revenue
Conducted market research to identify emerging designers and brands, leading to the successful launch of a new product line that generated $500K in sales
Utilized data analytics tools to monitor inventory levels and optimize stock, reducing markdowns by 30%

Avoid simply stating that you are 'data-driven' without providing specific examples of how you've used data to drive results.

Highlight your leadership and team management experience

Many fashion buyer roles involve managing a team of assistant buyers or interns. Showcase your leadership skills by:

Mentored and trained a team of 5 assistant buyers, resulting in two promotions within the first year
Led cross-functional teams to develop and execute successful buying strategies for new product categories
Collaborated with designers, merchandisers, and sales teams to ensure cohesive product assortments and brand messaging

Avoid simply listing 'team management' as a skill without providing examples of how you've successfully led and developed teams.

Tailor your resume to the specific company and role

Each fashion company has its own unique brand identity, target customer, and company culture. Tailor your resume to the specific company and role you're applying for by:

Researching the company's mission, values, and recent product launches, and incorporating relevant keywords and phrases into your resume
Highlighting experiences or skills that align with the company's specific needs and priorities
Customizing your resume summary or objective statement to clearly convey why you're a strong fit for the role and company

Avoid using a generic, one-size-fits-all resume that fails to demonstrate your understanding of and passion for the specific company and role.

Quantify your impact and achievements

Whenever possible, use specific numbers and metrics to quantify your impact and achievements. This helps hiring managers understand the scale and significance of your contributions. For example:

Managed a buying budget of $10M, consistently achieving sales targets and maintaining inventory turns of 4.5
Introduced 25 new brands to the product assortment, contributing to a 15% increase in customer acquisition
Negotiated exclusive partnerships with top designers, resulting in a 20% increase in average order value

Avoid using vague or subjective descriptions of your achievements, such as 'significantly increased sales' or 'greatly improved customer satisfaction,' without providing specific numbers to back them up.

Writing Your Fashion Buyer Resume: Section By Section

Summary

A resume summary for a Fashion Buyer role is optional, but it can be an effective way to provide additional context about your experience and skills that may not be immediately apparent from the rest of your resume. This is especially useful if you are changing careers or have a diverse background that doesn't perfectly align with the Fashion Buyer job description.

However, it's crucial to avoid using an objective statement, as these are outdated and often fail to provide value to the hiring manager. Instead, focus on crafting a concise summary that highlights your most relevant qualifications and experiences without repeating information already present in other sections of your resume.

How to write a resume summary if you are applying for a Fashion Buyer resume

Expand

1. Tailor your summary to the fashion industry

When writing a summary for a Fashion Buyer resume, it's essential to showcase your understanding of the fashion industry and highlight relevant skills and experiences. Consider including key terms and phrases that demonstrate your knowledge of current trends, product development, and vendor relationships.

For example, a well-crafted summary might look like this:

Experienced Fashion Buyer with a proven track record of identifying emerging trends, building strong vendor relationships, and driving sales growth. Skilled in market analysis, product development, and inventory management. Passionate about delivering on-trend, high-quality products that resonate with target customers.

Avoid generic statements that could apply to any industry, such as:

Results-driven professional with a strong work ethic
Experienced buyer with excellent communication skills

To ensure your summary is tailored to the fashion industry, consider using our Targeted Resume tool, which checks your resume against a specific job description to identify relevant skills and keywords.

2. Highlight fashion buying accomplishments

When crafting your Fashion Buyer resume summary, focus on showcasing your most impressive accomplishments and quantifiable results. This helps demonstrate the value you can bring to the company and sets you apart from other candidates.

Strong examples of accomplishment-driven summaries include:

Fashion Buyer with 5+ years of experience, consistently achieving 15% YoY sales growth through strategic product assortment and trend forecasting
Proven track record of negotiating favorable terms with vendors, resulting in a 10% reduction in product costs and improved profit margins

Avoid vague or unsubstantiated claims, such as:

Experienced Fashion Buyer with a passion for fashion
Skilled negotiator and relationship builder

After crafting your summary, use our Score My Resume tool to receive instant feedback on your resume's content, ensuring you've effectively highlighted your accomplishments and skills.

Experience

The work experience section is the most important part of your fashion buyer resume. It's where you show hiring managers that you have the skills and experience to excel in the role. In this section, we'll break down how to write a compelling work experience section that will catch the eye of fashion industry recruiters.

1. Highlight your fashion merchandising achievements

As a fashion buyer, your job is to select and purchase clothing and accessories that will sell well in stores. To stand out to hiring managers, focus on your achievements in merchandising and buying.

Here are some examples of strong fashion merchandising achievements to include:

Increased sales by 25% for women's denim category by identifying key trends and negotiating with vendors
Collaborated with design team to develop a bestselling private label handbag line that generated $500K in revenue
Managed a budget of $2M and consistently met or exceeded sales goals each quarter

Quantify your achievements whenever possible. Use specific numbers, percentages, and dollar amounts to show the impact you made. If you don't have exact metrics, estimate or use ranges.

2. Use fashion buying action verbs

When describing your work experience, use strong action verbs that are relevant to fashion buying. This helps paint a picture of your skills and expertise.

Weak, generic verbs like these don't convey much:

Helped with product development
Worked on assortment planning

Instead, use powerful fashion buying verbs:

Curated a collection of 50+ new styles for spring/summer season
Forecasted trends and built a merchandise assortment to drive $1M in sales
Sourced and negotiated terms with 20 new vendors across Asia and Europe

Expand

Vary your verbs to show the range of your skills. Some other great fashion buying verbs to use: allocated, procured, maximized, tracked, budgeted, liaised.

3. Showcase your career growth

Fashion buyers often start in assistant or junior roles and work their way up. Showing this progression in your resume paints a picture of your growing skills and responsibilities.

Associate Buyer, XYZ Brands
Jun 2018 - Present

Assistant Buyer, XYZ Brands
Aug 2016 - Jun 2018

This example resume shows a clear path from Assistant Buyer to Associate Buyer. The candidate is demonstrating that they were promoted and trusted with more responsibility over time.

Want to make sure your career progression stands out? Try our free Score My Resume tool. It analyzes your resume's job titles and dates to assess if you've clearly showcased promotions and growth.

Education

The education section of your fashion buyer resume should be concise yet impactful. It's a chance to showcase your relevant academic background and any specialized training that sets you apart. Here are some key tips to keep in mind as you craft this section:

1. Highlight your fashion merchandising degree

If you have a degree in fashion merchandising, retail management, or a related field, make sure to prominently feature it in your education section. This shows employers you have the relevant academic foundation for the role.

Bachelor of Science in Fashion Merchandising
New York University, New York, NY
Graduated: May 2020
GPA: 3.8

If you don't have a directly related degree, you can still include your education, but keep it brief and focus on any relevant coursework or projects.

If you studied abroad or completed a fashion-related internship during your education, consider mentioning it briefly to further emphasize your industry exposure.

2. List relevant coursework for recent grads

If you're a recent graduate without much work experience, you can bolster your education section by listing relevant coursework. This gives employers a better sense of the specific skills and knowledge you bring to the table.

Courses: Retail Buying, Merchandise Planning, Trend Forecasting, Visual Merchandising

However, avoid listing basic or irrelevant classes that don't directly relate to the fashion buyer role, such as:

Courses: Intro to Psychology, French 101, Basic Biology

As you gain more work experience, you can phase out the coursework details to keep your education section concise.

3. Keep it brief for seasoned professionals

If you have several years of experience as a fashion buyer, your education section should be short and to the point. Employers will be more interested in your professional accomplishments at this stage.

B.A. in Marketing, ABC University

Contrast that with an overly detailed education section that distracts from your work history:

Bachelor of Arts in Marketing
ABC University, Anytown, USA
Graduated: May 2010
GPA: 3.5
Relevant Coursework: Principles of Marketing, Consumer Behavior, Market Research, Advertising and Promotion
Awards: Dean's List (Fall 2008, Spring 2009), Marketing Student of the Year (2010)

The one exception to the brevity rule is if you've recently completed an advanced degree or certification highly relevant to your fashion buying career. In this case, you can showcase a bit more detail.

Skills

The skills section of your fashion buyer resume is critical to convincing hiring managers you have what it takes to succeed in the role. It's where you highlight your most relevant abilities, tools, and techniques that match the job description.

In this section, we'll cover what skills to include, how to format them, and more, so you can craft a compelling skills section that will impress recruiters and get you one step closer to landing your dream fashion buyer job.

1. Showcase fashion industry skills

As a fashion buyer, you need a mix of industry-specific skills and general business acumen. Highlight your knowledge of the fashion industry, including:

Trend forecasting
Product development
Vendor management
Inventory control
Merchandising
Negotiation

Avoid listing generic skills that could apply to any job, like 'communication' or 'teamwork'. Instead, focus on the specific skills that show you understand the fashion industry and can excel in a buyer role.

Tailor the skills you include to the specific fashion buyer job you're applying for by carefully reviewing the job description and matching your skills to their requirements.

2. Use the right keywords to get past ATS

Many companies use Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to automatically screen resumes for relevant skills and keywords before a human ever sees them. To ensure your resume makes it past this first hurdle, incorporate skills and phrases from the job description.

For example, if the job description mentions 'product line management', make sure to include that exact phrase in your skills section:

Product line management
Seasonal buying
Competitive analysis

Avoid simply listing 'buying' or 'analysis' on their own, as those generic terms may not trigger the ATS even if you have the right experience.

Not sure if your resume has the right skills to get past an ATS? Try running it through Resume Worded's Targeted Resume tool, which analyzes your resume against a specific job description and provides suggestions for improvement.

3. Categorize skills to show breadth and depth

Grouping your skills into categories helps demonstrate both the breadth and depth of your abilities as a fashion buyer. For example:

Buying: Assortment planning, Open-to-buy, Vendor negotiation
Merchandising: Product display, Visual merchandising, Planogram development
Trend Analysis: Fashion forecasting, Competitive shopping, Trade show attendance

This approach is much more effective than simply listing out skills in a long bulleted list with no organization, like this:

Buying
Assortment planning
Open-to-buy
Vendor negotiation
Merchandising
Product display
Visual merchandising
Planogram development

Aim for 3-4 categories with 3-5 skills each to provide a comprehensive yet scannable overview of your abilities.

If you're not sure how to best categorize your fashion buyer skills, try looking at job descriptions and resumes for similar roles to see how other professionals organize their expertise.

4. Include proficiency levels selectively

In some cases, indicating your level of proficiency in a particular skill can help differentiate you from other candidates. For example:

Retail math (expert)
Adobe Illustrator (advanced)
PLM software (intermediate)

However, be judicious in using proficiency levels. Only include them for skills where your level of expertise is particularly relevant or impressive. Listing every skill as 'expert' or 'advanced' can seem disingenuous.

Also, avoid using graphics or meters to indicate skill level, like this:

Merchandising ●●●●○
Negotiation ●●●○○
Trend analysis ●●●●●

While visually interesting, these graphics don't convey useful information and can confuse ATS.

For an objective assessment of your skills section and overall resume, upload your resume to Resume Worded's Score My Resume tool. It provides instant feedback on 30+ key criteria hiring managers look for.

Skills For Fashion Buyer Resumes

Here are examples of popular skills from Fashion Buyer job descriptions that you can include on your resume.

Match Your Resume To These Skills

Skills Word Cloud For Fashion Buyer Resumes

This word cloud highlights the important keywords that appear on Fashion Buyer job descriptions and resumes. The bigger the word, the more frequently it appears on job postings, and the more likely you should include it in your resume.

Top Fashion Buyer Skills and Keywords to Include On Your Resume

For more skills, visit Fashion Buyer Skills & Keywords.

Turn your career into a rocketship. In 5 minutes a week.

Get a free bi-weekly coaching email from a $750/hour career coach. Get proven strategies on how to unlock your career's potential, meet VIPs in your industry and turn your career into a rocketship.

No fluff. No noise. Join the 1.2+ million professionals who are getting ahead in their careers, for free.

"I've 3x'd my salary in just two years. My friends think I'm smart (I'm not). Resume Worded's Coached email series is my secret weapon to trick them though. It's working wonderfully. Try it."
- A Coached Reader